So Long, Anaheim

Check-out time nears, and my laptop has to find its safe case for the trip home. Tomorrow I will be back in Omaha, checking in with my lab peeps and seeing patients all afternoon.

Today’s post was going to be about the Renal Section Dinner last night, with video of the undergraduate and post-doc award presentations. Watching these folks try to line up for a photograph is hysterical; you will have to trust me for now.

I plugged my flip into the laptop this morning and started the upload to YouTube. Everything went well for over an hour. At 95% things were still going smoothly. Then, the message: problem with download.

I do not have time to start over now. Tomorrow I will try again with my hard-wire connection. I will make this available (because everyone’s parents deserve to see this sort of thing).

So stay tuned. I will prevail over my gizmos.

Congratulations Darwin (Not That Darwin)

Meeting fatigue has set in, and I am almost looking forward to the trip home tomorrow. Hot science still rules the Anaheim convention center, and there will be a tweet-up to celebrate the tweet-off tonight.

This morning I dragged myself to an 8am session because a friend, P. Darwin Bell, PhD, of the Medical University of South Carolina, gave it. 

The Gottschalk Distinguished Lectureship of the APS Renal Section is the highest award a physiologist can receive (unless the Nobel committee comes calling). We are talking scientific rock-star status. And I know this guy! I had to rouse my sorry butt out for this one.

Carl W. Gottschalk, the namesake of the lectureship, came from Virginia but accomplished his breakthroughs during 41 years as a faculty member in the College of Medicine at University of North Carolina. Although he started out to be a cardiologist, the kidney grabbed his attention. Using micropuncture, he studied urine concentrating mechanisms and developed the countercurrent multiplier theory.

These scientific contributions alone would warrant naming stuff for him; however, Gottschalk also worked for patients with kidney disease. In 1967 he chaired the government panel that guaranteed payment for dialysis and kidney transplantation, at the time novel therapies, via the Medicare program. Millions of patients, including my own, are living productive lives because of these efforts by Gottschalk.

Focusing on tubuloglomerular feedback during his career, Darwin has changed many views of this process. The field of patch-clamping amazes me, and the technical stuff Darwin performs sometimes seems like science fiction. Clamping the macula densa? A bioprobe to confirm ATP secretion? Wow. A PubMed search reveals 113 publications today, a number that will rise in the future.

So once again, congratulations to Dr. Bell for a well-deserved and well-delivered lecture.

By the way, don’t forget the tweet-up to celebrate the tweet-off between Executive Director of the APS Marty Frank and Dr. Isis, 10:30 tonight in the bar at the Anaheim Hilton. I will announce the official winner about 6pm via Twitter. Good luck to all!

Throwing the Gauntlet

Experimental Biology approaches, so shenanigans must be planned.

For this year’s meeting a tweet-off has been proposed:

Isis the Scientist, the hottest goddess of science, versus Marty Frank, Executive Director of the American Physiologic Society.

VS.

Goal: enroll the most new followers on twitter during the meeting.

As a reasonably neutral party who already follows both of these distinguished individuals on twitter, I volunteer to moderate the contest as follows:

• Contest will begin at 0800 Pacific time on Friday, April 23, when on-site registration opens
• Contest will end at 0800 Pacific time on Wednesday, April 28, so a winner can be determined before I have to head to the airport; we can move this back to noon on Tuesday if necessary for the “prize”
• Shameless publicity stunts are not only permissible, but encouraged (especially if free drinks and/or public nudity are involved)
• I will provide updates online and via twitter throughout the meeting; if APS allows, I may even post it on the whiteboard with the official registration numbers
• The final “prize” will be negotiated by the participants; perhaps the loser buys at a tweet-up  or provides clown services at a party?

So, you two, are you up for it? Cause I’m ready for some game faces and trash-talking!

We, The People

Today passed quickly on the Hill in DC. Advocacy is always an interesting experience. I am amazed that a brief walk through a metal detector and having my bag x-rayed allows me access to my elected officials. So my heels set off the detector the first time through… eventually they went through the x-ray box and we were in!

ANYONE can do this! We had made appointments ahead of time with some key members (and their key-er staffers), while we dropped by other offices with contact information and materials about our issues.

We passed several groups in the halls. Some wear tee or polo shirts displaying their group or cause. Others carried signs or other props. All were there for the same thing that brought us: personally extending our opinions to our elected officials. (Note: my group did not wear matching uniforms of any sort, just nice business clothing).

Will they do what we ask? Some will, some won’t. Some will decline for political reasons, others will frankly disagree with our opinions and information. In the end, we made our voices heard for the American Physiologic Society.

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress. Yeah, I forgot my real camera, and the phone camera image wasn’t good enough…

On Meetings Large & Small

For the next few days I will be communicating from a conference on the role sex plays in the kidney and in cardiovascular disease in general.

I have commented at length on planning and packing for meetings, and on various aspects of larger meetings I have attended. These included Experimental Biology and the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

Smaller meetings are different (duh). For about 3 days I will be with a group of people with very similar interests. We will talk together, eat together, drink together, and sleep together (in the same hotel, not the same room). These meetings are a great “breeding ground” for new ideas and approaches. While big meetings should generally include a personal session of touristy behavior, smaller meetings are more intense. And, ultimately, more valuable, even though some may see them as less prestigious than their larger brethren.

When I get bored, I will twitter about random thoughts (@phlane), and I will try to update the blog once or twice. I just finished my last book, About Face, and I should post another What I’m Reading on Sunday. After all, I will have time to burn in airports!

Hot Gossip in New Orleans

I had two completely uneventful flights (thank you, United Airlines) and arrived in New Orleans for Experimental Biology, too late for the Cannon lecture, but well in time for the opening reception. I had two drink tickets - not using them would be wasteful!

I hung out near the bars, figuring eventually I would catch up with everyone I know (rumors that we are raging alcoholics are patently untrue). We were a bit distressed when the pregnant grad student found out that they charged a drink ticket for a plastic cup of water - for a drink ticket we figured she should at least get the whole bottle! APS, take note and fix this for next year!

Eventually I was approached by the president of APS, Irv Zucker, who had a very important question for me: Who is Dr. Isis? I had to disappoint him; even though I have had frequent interactions with the goddess, all have been through her Dr. Isis email and the blogosphere.

We then proceeded to the president's reception (free bar, Makers Mark bourbon, and nice desserts) - did I mention that he is the chair of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at my institution and I have a courtesy appointment in his department? Well, EVERYONE is trying to figure out who Dr. Isis might be. Apparently this was a hot topic for the APS Council. Even colleagues with no interest in shoes or fashion porn are discussing this riddle.

As for me, I'm not certain I want to know. The mystery is part of the fun. For the rest of the meeting I will be looking at every female vascular physiologist with a runner's physique, pasty ankles, and hot shoes, and wondering if she could be the goddess.